


Happily Ever After

by AhaMarimbas



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cinderella - Freeform, Established Relationship, Humour, Mentions of the Dursleys' treatment of Harry, Primary School, Romance, School Play, Teachers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23424172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AhaMarimbas/pseuds/AhaMarimbas
Summary: Every fairy tale has a hero... but does every hero get their fairy tale ending?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	Happily Ever After

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta'd (at least by a human, I have at least 3 different spell check programs going here!) so sorry for any mistakes! I have no recollection of when this idea came to me or when I wrote it, but it's been sitting in my WIP folder forever, so I figured it was time for it to see the light of day!
> 
> The Harry Potter Universe and it's characters belong to J.K. Rowling, I just dressed them up and put them on stage.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, Harry had loved being a teacher. Right now, however, he was seriously reconsidering his career choice.

“Who would like to play Prince Charming?” Harry called out, holding up a golden crown that he hoped would entice the kids. 

“Nobody?” came Draco’s drawl as he walked into the classroom. “No noble and daring young people in our class, willing to fight for the princess’s honour?”

Harry sighed when Draco’s dramatics were met with nothing but blank faced children. It was just their luck that the year three class was full of the most timid and shy children Merlin could conjure.

“What about Cinderella?” Harry tried. He held up the beautiful silver dress that Molly had generously made for their upcoming show. He hated that it might go unused if none of the children volunteered for parts.

“Does no one want to play the role of our dashing heroine? The gentle queen of an unnamed kingdom, beloved by all? From rags to riches, now living out her happy-ever-after in luxury and style?” From the way his speech was getting more and more dramatic, Harry could tell Draco was getting desperate. Unfortunately the class just seemed to be particularly apathetic this morning. He sighed when all they received was more blank stares.

“Do you even want to be a part of this play?” Harry asked, feeling defeated.

“I want to be the step-mother!” Madeline called out.

“Can I be the fairy god-mother?” Jason added.

“Oooh, I want to be an evil step-sister!” 

“I’m gonna be the page!”

Harry scrambled to fill the list out as the children cried out their demands. Finally, there were only two positions left.

“Isn’t there  _ anyone _ who would like to be either Prince Charming or Cinderella?” He pleaded. Draco smirked at him- Harry knew Draco didn’t believe in begging primary school children for anything, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Come on, who’s left?” Harry asked, his voice getting more assertive as he checked the list. He looked up at Draco in horror as he came to the unsettling conclusion that everyone had in fact signed up. They had forgotten that their class was a bit smaller than usual this year- this was the year of children born right during the second great war. There weren’t many of them.

Just then, the bell for recess chimed. The students ran off, leaving Harry and Draco alone.

“Draco, we didn’t think to cut a couple of non- essential parts. I completely forgot we have a smaller class this year.”

“Oh Merlin, you’re right. Ever since we opened this blasted school I was afraid of what this batch would bring. If only Teddy was in this class, he’d do anything we asked him to.”

“You know Andromeda wanted him to go to a muggle school before Hogwarts. And you love the academy, don’t you dare deny it.”

Draco most certainly did not deny it — it was one of his greatest accomplishments, and he loved his work dearly. 

Three years ago, Harry and Draco had formed a surprising partnership with Headmistress McGonagall. While the three were talking at a ministry ball, she had mentioned that many students were coming to Hogwarts unprepared for school. Their writing was sub-par, their social skills were non-existent, and sometimes the muggleborns seemed to know more than children of wizarding families about the laws around underage magic. Under her guidance, they managed to set up the Potter-Malfoy Academy for Young Witches and Wizards. They were now the most prestigious academy for magical youth in all of England, with wait-lists for all levels, boasting some of the best teachers in Europe. Harry and Draco split their time between the year three class and the administrative work for the school, and everyone agreed that they were the best teachers in the whole school.

But despite all their success, they still couldn’t get a bunch of 7-year-olds to put on a proper play.

“We’ve already invited all the parents,” Harry worried. “How can we have a ‘Cinderella’ play without Cinderella?”

“Well, you know what we’ll have to do,” Draco said, as if it was the most obvious solution in the world. 

“What?” Harry asked, perplexed.

“We’ll have to fill in, and take the roles ourselves.”

Harry snorted. “ _ You’re _ going to play Cinderella? You’ve never done a chore in your life. You’d probably hold the broom upside down.”

“I know that Potter. You, however, are brilliant at cleaning our flat. Plus, that dress will look smashing on you,” he winked. Before Harry could retort, Draco waltzed out of the room, placing the plastic crown on his head as he went.

Harry sat there through most of his break staring at the tiny silver dress. The first time he’d heard Draco read Cinderella to the class, he had seen so much of himself in that poor girl, enslaved by her own family. He’d walked right out of the class, needing a minute to compose himself. They had already discussed putting on a play based on the old fairy tale, but after actually reading it, Harry had walked right back into the class intending to find a new story. After seeing the children’s overjoyed expressions at Cinderella’s turn of good fortune, however, he had managed to put his own childhood out of his mind and focus on putting together the play for parents night. It had been fairly effective until now, when Draco had suggested that Harry was good at cleaning…

It wasn’t that Harry really minded cleaning their flat. After living in a dorm with four other boys for seven years, and then Grimmauld place for two, he would rather his place was clean, and Draco was usually quite respectful of the fact that Harry had worked hard to keep their home neat. While he knew to put away his own stuff and to clean up a spill, Draco had never learned to clean a home properly, and Harry had always figured it was easier to just do it himself. Anyway, if he made a fuss about doing it, he knew he would have to tell Draco about life with the Dursleys. As much as he loved Draco, he just didn’t think he was ready for that yet.

“Harry?” Draco called. Harry jumped at the sudden noise, and realized Draco had returned and had been trying to get his attention for a few moments now.

“Harry, is everything alright?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m okay,” Harry mumbled, not wanting Draco to probe deeper. 

“You know, I was only kidding around just now. You don’t have to be Cinderella if you don’t want to, I’m sure one of the other teachers wouldn’t mind filling in.” Draco bit his lip, and Harry couldn’t help wanting to ease that worry away.

“Hey, it’s fine, I’ll do it,” Harry said, plastering a smile onto his face. “I hope you know a good charm to enlarge this dress though.”

* * *

“We didn’t think to make a ragged dress too,” Draco realised with a start. “We’ve spent all evening fitting you in this gown, but you’ll need a run-down outfit for the start of the play too.”

“Does it have to be a dress?” Harry asked. “I have some dirty old shirts and joggers left over from when we were renovating the flat.”

“Hmm, show me.”

Harry opened a drawer and pulled out a small pile of baggy t-shirts, handing them over. He watched as Draco picked up a large grey shirt.

“I’m so glad you stopped wearing clothes like this after school,” Draco commented, handing it out to Harry. “Here, try this on.” 

Harry slipped the shirt on—it was so stretched out that it hung off of one of his shoulders.

“Well, it’s perfect for the play. I don’t know what you were even thinking, buying clothes like this in the first place though.” 

“I… I didn’t buy them,” Harry said, turning to stare at his reflection in the mirror. 

“Dear Merlin, don’t tell me someone gifted them to you?” 

Harry shook his head. “They’re hand-me-downs from my cousin. He’s a pretty large guy.”

He looked up and caught a brief look of horror on Draco’s face. His boyfriend quickly schooled his look into something more neutral when he noticed Harry looking. “I—um, I didn’t realize. I guess I just assumed that you had access to your parents’ fortune, or that your muggle relatives were equally wealthy. It must have been hard to grow up in a low-income household.”

When they were still in school, if anyone had told Harry that he would hear Draco Malfoy say those words, he would have said it was an act, and that Draco was up to something. But years of teaching had softened Draco, and made him a lot more understanding of the challenges that different families faced. More than once they had anonymously donated scholarships, both for their school and for Hogwarts, just because they couldn’t bear to see their bright students drop out due to financial problems. Harry could appreciate that Draco’s sympathy was real. Until it hit him that it was sympathy for the Dursleys too.

Anger building in his gut, Harry was about to correct Draco’s misunderstanding, before he realised exactly what he was going to correct. What would he say?  _ Actually, they had more than enough money, they just didn’t like me.  _ Did complaining about them make Harry ungrateful? He remembered aunt Marge once telling him that he was lucky the Dursleys had kept him, and that if he had been left with her, he would have been sent straight to an orphanage. Surely that would have been worse, right? At least with the Dursleys, he could say he stayed with his family, even if he didn’t really like them that much.

And what would Draco think of him? Harry Potter, vanquisher of dark lords and saviour of the wizarding world, bullied by his muggle relatives? He’d probably think of Harry as weak, or that he was just being dramatic about simple chores. He now understood how Cinderella had felt, and why she didn’t want to reveal her true identity to her prince charming. 

“Harry?” Draco’s voice snapped Harry out of his thoughts. “Harry, are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking.”

“About your childhood?”

“Uh, yeah.” The desire to tell Draco everything was getting stronger. But he couldn’t, could he? “I’m pretty tired. Let’s get to bed.”

There’s no need to tell him anything, Harry thought as they climbed into bed. He felt Draco’s arm wrap around his waist and relaxed into his embrace. He would simply appreciate what he had now.

* * *

  
  


Harry could hear Draco’s breath catch as he walked onto the stage in the silver gown. He made his way across the glittering set slowly, having trouble balancing in the glass high-heels. He still didn’t understand why they couldn’t have been glass flats. Harry had suspected that Draco wanted to see him in heels, and now his awestruck face confirmed it. He could hear the children and parents giggling at the sight of their teacher in a dress, and smiled out at the crowd.

“Fair maiden,” Draco said imperiously, giving Harry a deep bow. “May I have the honour of this dance?”

“You may,” Harry said shyly. As Draco swept him up and led him into a short waltz, he lost himself in the music, breathing in his boyfriend’s fresh smelling cologne.

“You look beautiful in this costume,” Draco whispered, and Harry couldn’t help blushing at how genuine Draco’s compliment seemed to be. He had never thought of himself as  _ beautiful. _

“Only the best for my Prince Charming,” Harry whispered back. Before he knew it, Draco had twirled him around and drawn him into a passionate kiss, right there on stage. Harry ended it within seconds, already weary of the complaints they’d get from the parents tomorrow. But in that moment, he somehow knew that he could trust Draco completely.

“When we get home, I have something to tell you,” Harry said softly, as Prince Charming led Cinderella off the stage. 

By the end of the night, Prince charming had learned all about Cinderella’s wicked step-mother, and had vowed to marry her and to keep her safe till the end of her days.

And they all lived happily ever after. 


End file.
